Binding apparatus for packaging and recycling

ABSTRACT

A binding apparatus for packaging and paper recycling comprises of four separate holding trays, four legs connected to the trays, and several frames connecting the legs. Each of the trays holds a corner to a quarter of the area of the papers or materials which need to be bound. The four trays work together to hold papers or any materials that needs to be bound but there is a clearance between any two pairs of the trays. Given the clearance between the trays and the clearance between the frames and trays, human hands, ropes, or binding tools can go through to bind the papers without touching any one of the trays and without moving the objects which needs to be bound. The ropes are placed in the clearances between trays. Once the binding is finished, a stack of bound papers or materials can be removed directly from the top of the binding apparatus without moving the apparatus. The apparatus can be used for paper recycling, as magazine rack, or as furniture for decoration.

FIELD OF INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to pack the recycle paper, used paper containers and carts, more particularly, to use for collecting, binding, and packaging papers or materials easily.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Paper recycling for environment protection has been popular in offices and at homes. In offices, the recycling work is relatively easy since there are special cans or bins for recycling, while at home, it is required to bind all papers together using ropes and put them on the curbs on a designated day for collection. Without a special tool, the collecting and binding work is not easy: Firstly, many small scraps of papers have been thrown into garbage cans instead of recycled because they are too small to be collected and bound; thus, a large amount of recyclable papers are not recycled. Secondly, for large pieces of papers which can be recycled, such as newspapers, magazines, or books, it is not easy to bind them properly using ropes. One has to move or turn a large stack of papers or magazines around while doing the binding work. The effort is often failed and one has to repeat the work for more than once while bending one stack of papers. Therefore, instead of doing the recycling, many people also find it discouraging and just throw the recyclable paper out as garbage.

[0003] The same problem exists in any manufacturer involving products packaging when the products have to be wrapped with ropes or other materials. Thus, a special tool or method is needed to further help a quick and easy packaging process.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

[0004] The prior art relevant to this invention are listed as following:

[0005] U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,842 (2000) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,568 (2001) to Butterfield et al. disclosure a container for a stack of newspapers includes bottom, side, and back walls and a substantially open front to facilitate stacking newspapers in the container. Although the container facilitates picking up and dumping the stacked papers in a collection truck, it does not have the function to facilitate binding newspapers.

[0006] U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,743 (1991) to Lazzarotti disclosures a combined sack and tray system for mail collection. It allows mail sacks and tray receptacles to be used as output for the small parcels and bundles sorting system used by the United States Post Office. U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,636 (1991) to Coskery discloses a refuse recycling box having a flat bottom which is separated by flow channels. This flat bottom, like other flat bottom containers, will tend to creep, deform and bow downward under a given load, especially as a long-term consequence. U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,858 (2001) to Koefelda is a plastic container includes at least one side wall member and bottom portion integrally formed with the at least one side wall. The bottom portion has an outer surface with a generally concave shape. In addition to the above containers, there are many issued patents related to containers and boxes listed wherein the above patent documents. For all the above inventions, they serve as a collecting container; however, none of them offer the feature to easy the binding work for a user. All the collected materials must be taken out from the boxes or containers before binding.

[0007] Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus which can be used not only to collect but also to do the binding of the collected materials inside the apparatus. Furthermore, the apparatus should allow the binding work to be done without moving the substances stored inside the apparatus until the binding work is finished.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] With the foregoing in mind, the present invention advantageously provides binding an apparatus for packaging and paper recycling. The binding apparatus has three functions: Firstly, it can be used to collect and hold both large and small pieces of paper for binding; Secondly, one can easily bind the materials inside the apparatus using ropes without any movement of the objects which needs to be bound; and Lastly, once the binding work is finished, the bound papers or stuff can be taken out from the top of the binding apparatus directly without moving the apparatus.

[0009] The present invention discloses an apparatus comprising four trays to hold the four corners of papers from the bottom while leaving enough space among the trays; thus, ropes can go though while binding. The four trays are mounted to four legs connected by frames. Those standing legs ensure enough clearance between the trays and the frames; therefore, human hands and ropes can go under and between the trays and frames to bind whatever is in the apparatus during binding. Given the space between the bottoms of the trays and the frames as well as the space among the trays, the papers or materials can be bound without any movement during binding, and bound papers or materials can be removed from the top of the apparatus directly. Under the legs, wheels can be mounted to facilitate moving the apparatus.

[0010] The present invention can also be applied to package and bind products in industry manufacture. It can make the packaging work more efficient and reduce the cost of production.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011]FIG. 1 is a view of the binding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0012]FIG. 2 is a view of the binding apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention without wheels;

[0013]FIG. 3 is an isometric, exploded view of the trays of the same embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

[0014]FIG. 4 is the binding apparatus as shown in FIG. 1 with collected papers.

[0015]FIG. 5 shows that the collected papers were bound by ropes without moving the papers.

[0016]FIG. 6 shows that the bound papers were removed from the binding apparatus without moving the apparatus.

DRAWING—REFERENCE NUMERALS

[0017]14, 24, 34, and 44 are trays for holding papers.

[0018]16, 26, 36, and 46 are side walls of the paper holding trays.

[0019]18, 28, 38, and 48 are front walls of the paper holding trays.

[0020]50 is collected papers that needs to be bound.

[0021]52 is ropes for binding.

[0022]62, 64, 66, and 68 are legs of a different embodiment of the present invention.

[0023]72, 82, 76, and 86 are side frames to connect the legs.

[0024]74, 84, 78, and 88 are front frames to connect the legs.

[0025]92, 94, 96, and 98 are wheels mounted to the legs.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0026] The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the illustrated embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these illustrated embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

[0027]FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of the binding apparatus for paper recycling with wheels. FIG. 2 illustrates another embodiment of the binding apparatus for paper recycling without wheels. FIG. 3 is an isometric, exploded view of the trays of binding apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The binding apparatus comprises four legs 62, 64, 66, and 68, eight, more or less, frames 72, 74, 76, 78, 82, 84, 86, and 88, and four paper holding trays 14, 24, 34, and 44.

[0028] In FIGS. 1 and 2, the legs and frames are used to fix the four paper holding trays. The distance between the bottoms of the paper holding trays and the frames should be large enough to create a clearance such that human hands and ropes can go through the space for binding.

[0029] In FIG. 3, each of the paper holding trays comprises a tray base, 14, 24, 34, or 44; a front wall, 18, 28, 38, or 18; and a side wall 16, 26, 36, or 46. Both the front walls and side walls are connected to the tray base. Four paper trays work together to hold papers but there is enough space among the trays, such that ropes can be placed in the space for binding.

[0030] As shown in FIG. 4, when the binding apparatus is in use, papers can be collected by putting them on the top of the trays, 14, 24, 34, and 44. Since there is space among the four trays, one can use ropes to bind the papers. As shown in FIG. 5, the ropes can be placed in the space between the trays. The binding work can be performed without moving the papers at all. As shown in FIG. 6, once the binding is done, the bound papers can be removed from the top of the binding apparatus for recycling directly without moving the apparatus.

[0031] It should be understood that the binding apparatus of the present invention may comprise an ornamental design. The ornamental design may be applied to a surface of the binding apparatus, or may include the binding apparatus itself incorporating an ornamental shape. For example, the tray walls could include the sign of paper recycling.

[0032] It should also be understood that the legs, frames, and paper holding trays may have different design. For example, the legs may or may not have wheels. Further, the tray may have separate front and side walls and the walls may have various shapes and design. Each of the walls may comprise several pieces. An embodiment may even without any of the walls or with only part of the walls. The size of the binding apparatus and the distance among trays can be changed for different paper sizes and applications.

[0033] For any one of the embodiments, additional attachments can be mounted on the surface of the binding apparatus to hold ropes, scissors, and other tools to facilitate the binding work.

[0034] The binding apparatus can be put on the floor during use. The embodiment in FIGS. 1 and 2 can be as high as a table to make the binding work even easier to users. Different designs of the binding apparatus can be in different size in any dimension for different applications.

[0035] Also, the invention can be built of different materials, such as wood, metal, plastic, etc. Since human hands will be around the trays and may come in contact with the binding apparatus, the binding apparatus should not be made of materials that can injure human hands.

[0036] In addition to paper recycling, the concept of binding apparatus can be embodied for other applications. For example, it can be used to bind or package products during packaging of any size in manufacture to improve efficiency and reduce cost. It can also be used as furniture for holding magazines or for decoration.

[0037] In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed two typical preferred embodiments of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, the terms are used in a descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The invention has been described in considerable detail with specific reference of these illustrated embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that various modifications and changes can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention as described in the foregoing specification and as defined in the appended claims. 

I claim:
 1. A binding apparatus comprising: four separate trays; four legs; and several frames.
 2. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein the legs hold and connect the trays.
 3. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein the legs can be any shape and can be with or without wheels.
 4. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the frames connects two legs.
 5. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein there is sufficient clearance between the frames and trays for human hands and ropes to go though for binding.
 6. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the trays can be connected by one side wall and one front wall.
 7. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the trays can be connected only by one side wall.
 8. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the trays can be connected only by one front wall.
 9. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the trays may not have walls connected to the tray.
 10. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the trays holds one corner to one quarter of the papers or materials which need to be bound, and four trays work together to hold the entire papers or materials which need to be bound.
 11. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein there is space between any pairs of the trays, such that ropes or binding materials can be placed in the space to bind papers without touching the trays.
 12. The binding apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an ornamental design, such as recycling signs.
 13. The binding apparatus of claim 1, further comprising attachment to tools, such as ropes, scissors, or others.
 14. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein the binding apparatus can be built by any solid materials, such as wood, metal, plastics, papers, etc.
 15. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein the binding apparatus can be built by a combination of any of the solid materials.
 16. The binding apparatus of claim 1, wherein each parts, base, standing parts, trays, and walls, may comprise one or more than one pieces of materials.
 17. A method of providing a binding apparatus comprising: four separate trays to hold the four corners of papers or materials which need to be bound, respectively, and the trays are connected to legs with frames between legs.
 18. A method of claim 18, further having enough clearance between the trays and frames, such that human hands and ropes or other binding tools or materials can go though while conducting binding.
 19. A method of claim 18, further having enough clearance between any pair of the trays; therefore, ropes or other binding materials can be placed in the space to bind the papers or materials which need to be bound.
 20. A method of claim 18, after binding, the bound papers or materials can be removed from the top of the binding apparatus directly without moving the binding apparatus. 